1838 To Ophelia
1861. Nov. 7. 1910
My thought goes back to other days
When you and I were young:
And kindly memory essays
To pain in scintillating rays
The joys, the hopes, the blessed ways,
That shone so brightly in the days
When you and I were young.
When you and I were young, my dear, -
In days of old, you know.
Those days were precious, and ‘tis queer
It seems so short since they were here. –
I close my eyes, and they appear
Through memory so bright and clear
Tho, many years ago.
Ah, well do I recall the day
When first I saw your face.
Though fifty years have passed away,
And raven curls are turned to gray,
It seems to me but yesterday,
So vividly does memory play
Around the dear old place.
And pretty soon the wedding came
When you were twenty three.
How vividly I see the same,
For then and there you changed your name,
And Mrs. Eugene Read became.
A stately, sober minded dance.
A treasure unto me.
That happy year is gone, we know,
But still it lingers near.
Preserved by memory in the glow
Of happy years that follow. – So
The flowers may fade, and fail to show
The brilliant shades of long ago,
The perfume is still here.
For in this anniversary
We celebrate today,
The golden autumn days we see
That follow fast, and follow free,
Your spring time day of twenty three. –
Oh, God has blessed them all to me
As they have passed away.
And may the fragrance of the rose,
That bloomed for you and me,
Perfume your partway till the close
Of trancient things, that brings repose
In that sweet home above, that knows
The blessed joy, and peace that shows
God’s love eternally.
Lombard Ills.

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